Player's Reference: The Ministry of Information
Beneath the Minister of Information are a number of Heads of Office; each Head of Office controls one of the subsidiary departments of the ministry, including the Foreign, Information, Intelligence, Labor, Justice, and Security offices. Unlike the Emperor, who frequently takes a hands-off approach to running the Advisory Council, the Minister of Information is a notorious micro-manager, and may give directions to subordinates two or three layers of leadership beneath him. Foreign Office Director: Claude Mornay The Ministry of Information controls the Foreign Office of the Coalition States, and the Minister of Information submits all diplomatic appointments to the Emperor for approval. In practice, what this means is that the Minister of Information controls foreign policy in the absence of any other guidance from the Emperor or the Advisory Council. Often this is counterproductive – the foot-dragging on an alliance with the New German Republic was based on the Minister of Information’s dismissal of a foreign alliance as useful to the Coalition – but equally often it is surprisingly effective. The Minister of Information was the one who began negotiations, secretly and without approval, for ending the Quebec war. Those negotiations culminated in the Containment Pact. Frontier Affairs Undersecretary: Police General Reynard Fredericks It is typical of the Ministry of Information that offices duplicate and overlap significantly in a dizzying span of empire-building. Frontier Affairs is a perfect example - its official duties include settlement and frontier security, and it is responsible for integrating existing human townships which wish to join the Coalition, such as Hogswaller in Minnesota, site of Camp Viking, and Fort Hope in Iron Heart in Canada. In reality, Reynard Fredericks is one of the most ambitious men in the Coalition, and has built a special "technical section" from the Security Forces that largely overlaps the special-operations sections of both Intelligence and the military services. Fredericks controls men like Colonels Jack Piper and Otto Sorensen and their "Patrol Groups." Also part of Fredericks's growing empire is a network of security agents and informers that the police branch would envy; his goal is to rise to control the police forces nationwide. Information Office Director: Winona Jessup The Information Office controls propaganda and public relations, closely interacting with the Intelligence Office – Information controls information flowing out, while Intelligence largely controls information flowing in. Information is responsible for both foreign propaganda, such as the ongoing campaign to get the Missouri kingdom of Whykin to become a member-state, and domestic propaganda, such as the immensely popular “Sons of Empire” and “Storm Saxon” holo-shows. Common themes, as the names might indicate, are the valor and sacrifice of the Coalition military machine. Recruiting posters, radio announcements, and news broadcasts are all under Information’s blanket. Education In addition to recruiting and propaganda, the Information Office's Education Secretariat is responsible for education in the Coalition States, outside of the military's educational system. In terms of higher education, the University of Chi-Town, the Imperial College, Chi-Town and Imperial College, City of Iron, and the Lone Star Technical Institute form the backbone of the Coalition's upper echelon. Combined, these schools admit less than 1% of the eligible Coalition population each year, leaving them free to focus on research, often with an intensely military focus. The average Coalition citizen receives a basic education in mathematics, Coalition history, and the propaganda line of the regime, without resorting to literacy. Movies and holograms provide the majority of teaching materials. First-year education at one of the higher-learning institutes focuses on developing literacy, followed by intensive study in a field of choice. The University of Chi-Town is a broad-spectrum educational institution; the other major options are all relatively narrowly and technically focused. Entertainment: Sons of Empire "Sons of Empire" is one of the Minister's pet projects, and is in its tenth year of production as of 109 PA. The show is a semi-documentary, semi-soap opera in which each hour-long episode focuses on the heroism of an individual or small unit of the Coalition military, usually someone who has earned either the Emperor's Citation (unit) or Imperial Medal of Honor (individual). Episode 6-35, "The Skies of El Dorado," focused on the adventures of 2nd Lieutenant Ernie Grimaldi, a pilot during the Juicer Uprising who led the security flight for one of the reinforcement Death's Head transports. When the transport was brought down by Juicer flight units, Grimaldi stayed over the crash site for eight hours until recovery efforts could begin and the area was secured for evacuation. Grimaldi received the IMH for his actions. In the episode, he was played by well-known action actor Kirk Curtis. Entertainment: Storm Saxon "Storm Saxon" is the long-running story of a SAMAS squad leader assigned to whatever area the Coalition government feels should be highlighted this season. In 105, Storm Saxon and his Sky Rangers (the full name of the show) were assigned to the Arkansas front ("Storm Saxon and the Swift Hand of Death," for instance); in 106-108, they were in Tolkeen ("Storm Saxon and the Frozen Hell"). Heritage The Heritage Secretariat is responsible for archaeological digs and investigation of the Time Before Rifts. It is, therefore, viewed with suspicion by some elements of the Coalition hierarchy, because of its widespread exterior studies. Current efforts by Heritage focus on investigating the Ohio Valley; they have occasionally sponsored expeditions into both the American West and Dinosaur Swamp. Intelligence Office Director: General Jaime Perez The Intelligence Office is the agency responsible for collecting information about both dangerous groups within the Coalition States and foreign powers. There are officers from Intelligence in every foreign embassy, trading delegation, and exploratory expedition. Additionally, every police department from town level to regional security level has an Intelligence component of some size – in Hannibal, Missouri, it is only a handful of personnel, while Chi-Town has almost as many intelligence staff assigned just to the Chi-Town Burbs as there are assigned to all of the state of Missouri. Intelligence technically has no operational authority – that responsibility in theory belongs to the military – but the truth is that they have been executing operations in the field as long as there has been an Intelligence Office. This is hardly secret, and the military has given up on complaining that assassinations and kidnappings are not “information-gathering” missions. The Intelligence office, like the military’s operational intelligence sections, runs a number of deep-cover fronts such as mercenary organizations. Some of these, it is said, even turn a profit. Justice Office Director: Chief Inspector of Police Deon Martin The Justice Office handles criminal, non-political, and non-military offenses. Since the majority of serious crimes in the Coalition States are political or military in nature, the Justice Office mostly handles enforcement of local decisions. Special courts of the Justice Office may contribute to political cases, but this is rare. The Justice Office has in recent years begun to circumvent its weak role in Coalition internal politics by establishing special magistrates with the power to investigate and establish the facts of a case even without the participation of the police or the intelligence office. These so-called inquisitorial magistrates are occasionally just called “inquisitors,” and their role in Coalition society is essentially what they define it to be. Some have focused on political crimes, others on hunting the most dangerous of criminals. The Emperor views some friction within his government as a good thing, and has thus far protected the inquisitors from complaints. Labor Office Director: Chief Inspector of Labor Camps Otto Kornemann Of all the offices of the Ministry of Information, Labor is the least prestigious, most viewed as “dirty,” and most widely despised. This is because Labor supervises both the criminal labor camps, where most of the Coalition’s political and dangerous human criminals are sent, and the inductive labor camps, where humans trying to short-list themselves for citizenship often serve. Labor camps are established on a project basis, and camps are very rarely permanent (exceptions such as the uranium works at Bancroft in Iron Heart do exist). As a result, very often prisoners controlled by the Labor Office are rented out as slaves, with minimal supervision and even more minimal supply. Much of Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois is farmed by Labor-supplied drafts; these laborers are relatively lucky in that agricultural workers are able to scrounge food fairly easily. Generally, Labor attempts to keep the inductive laborers and the criminal laborers separate; they are not always successful, and as a result entire careers have been made in the Labor Inspectorate. The Inspectorate fields traveling teams to inspect camps in each of the Coalition States. Lone Star poses the most problems in this regard, as much of Lone Star’s criminal-labor population is made up of mutant animals. The goal is to extract as much labor as possible from workers before they die of natural causes; Lone Star has an unusually high death rate, with obscure canine diseases often masking simple failure to provide food, or occasionally a very high execution rate. Police & Security Forces The Security Office controls the disposition nationwide of police forces. Most of the time, this means ensuring standardization of equipment and training. Occasionally, it means enforcing inter-department cooperation. The most dramatic example of this was the formation of the Security Forces divisions. These formations were unpopular with officers and police departments at the time they were formed, because they drew valuable resources better spent (in the eyes of those officers and departments) on keeping order. It took a direct intervention from the Minister to force their hands in the form of a secret memo pushed down before the Tolkeen War got into full swing. Security disperses its authority down to the individual State security forces, which are managed more or less independently except when national cooperation or standardization is needed. The State forces depend on each state’s constitution; in Chi-Town’s case, for instance, there is a clear segregation between the City and the State, each of which have roughly the same number of police forces. In Lone Star, all security arrangements are rigidly controlled from the central Lone Star complex. Missouri and Iron Heart both allow local government, in the form of their feudal barons, considerable leeway in the handling of police forces, while Arkansas is still in a state of flux. City Police Departments Any town large enough to receive a state charter has its own police force integrated into the overall police machinery. In small towns, the police may be the only armed presence in town; generally, there is one policeman for every twenty residents. This may seem excessive, but the Coalition views it as the surest way of maintaining order – by maintaining a vigilant, visible presence in every town of any size. Local police are generally recruited locally, though there are some situations such as recently insurgent regions where the entire police force is composed of personnel with no relation at all to the town. Local police jurisdiction ends officially at whatever boundary the city or town has; in Chi-Town, for instance, it ends at the fortress walls. However, the Coalition has a relatively liberal “hot pursuit” policy, and in the major fortress-cities, there are large detachments often indistinguishable from military units that are responsible for policing the Burbs. These units are given special extraterritorial jurisdiction and are in many ways above the law. Members of city police departments may be distinguished by the large block letters “CPD” on their uniforms, worn above the left breast pocket. The pocket itself bears the badge of the city or town to which they are assigned. The equivalent markings are painted on body armor in the same positions. Internal Security Services Cases which cross town boundaries fall into the domain of the Internal Security Services. ISS generally handles more investigations than direct interventions; however, there are ISS security brigades, specifically formed to deal with major insurrections, found in Missouri and Arkansas. These brigades are, like the Burb units, nearly indistinguishable from military units in organization, though equipped with second-line gear. ISS investigators, or inspectors (commonly shortened to “Specters”), are unique in that they are universally literate. This is because of the nature of their work – very rarely do organizations which cross state lines function strictly on verbal orders. Because of this, they are frequently screened for political reliability. Failure to meet the strictest standards of reliability will result in the fallen inspector being posted to a less politically dangerous position as a CPD officer in a settlement town, in the best of cases, or death or Labor exile at worst. ISS inspectors typically wear the long black leather coat associated with the Coalition police, with a black peaked cap and black gloves and boots. The cap band bears the silver letters “ISS,” while the coat has the same letters on the left breast. This is a deliberately crafted image designed to inspire fear in the average Coalition citizen – they know that if the Man in Black is speaking to them, they may very well be under investigation. The Justice office’s inquisitors have adopted this same uniform, without the markings. Security Forces Divisions: The Sword and Shield of the State A recent innovation, based on the success of the ISS brigades in Arkansas and the security forces units formed during the Tolkeen War, are the Security Forces Divisions. These units, each numbering about 20,000 troops, are fully militarized units answering only to the Minister of Information through the Security Office. Unlike Army divisions, they are typically identified by name rather than number. The current program is that one division will be assigned to each Coalition State, then concentrated as war looms. However, given the “permanent war” nature of the Coalition government, it is more likely that divisions will be raised as the Minister thinks he can get away with it, and deployed as he thinks they are needed. After Little Rock, the Security Forces were expanded to six fully active divisions, and many local police authorities have seen forming a Security Forces brigade as a potential path to both greater power and greater personal influence. Of these, only a handful are likely to expand to this size. However, they have been a drain on both police and in many cases regular Army resources. This drain is compounded by the selection of elite volunteers from within the Security Forces formations for the Frontier Affairs' branch's "technical service."